Top Considerations to Look for When Investing in a POS System for Hospitality

Whether you are a small restaurant business updating your POS technology, an Enterprise food & beverage company seeking to enhance security and reporting capabilities, or a medium-sized cafeteria business hoping to improve your efficiency, searching for a new POS system for hospitality applications can be intimidating.

As a business owner, your choice of POS solution influences your staff, customers, and ultimately: your bottom line.

Top 5 Considerations in Selecting a POS System for Hospitality

Here are five key attributes that should be at the top of your POS shopping list:

1. Features – what do I need to do and what do I want to do?

Before you invest, determine your business requirements. Evaluate your POS system for hospitality ‘needs’ in order to choose a solution that contains everything that you require. Make a list of ‘wants’ as well, so that you can question prospective POS providers on whether these are features that they can offer.

Most POS providers integrate with additional services and peripheral devices to enhance their value and the variety of solutions that they can provide their customers. Especially if you are interested in multiple integrations, choose a solution that avoids multiple points of contact and acts as an all-encompassing source of support.

Ask yourself:

• What features do my employees need in a POS system for hospitality to get the job done?
• What financial information do I need on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis? What level of detail do I require in my reports?
• What add-ons will enhance my customer’s experience?
• Do I need additional peripherals like weigh scales, pin-pads, and marketing displays?

2. Support – how committed to your success is your POS provider?

In a perfect world, no one would need technical support. In reality, hiccups happen with POS software and hardware. Your POS provider must be committed to ensuring proper training, providing exceptional customer support, and maintaining a strong relationship with you to ensure that your needs are always met and your POS system for hospitality grows with your business.

Ask yourself:

• Can I call my POS support team around the clock and have problems solved quickly?
• How quickly does the company reply to my e-mails?
• Do I feel like a valued or wanted customer?

3. Usability – how easy-to-use is the system?

Choose a system that is intuitive and efficient. You should be able to generate the information you need quickly. Keep your team in mind – your staff should be able to arrive at work and begin processing transactions virtually immediately. If your POS isn’t doing most of the work for you, then you need a new system. Your goal should be less time in front of your computer, and more time in front of your customers.

Ask yourself:

• Will my employees be able to easily use the software?
• How easy is it to add new items and customize the display?
• Is it easy to process payments?
• Does the POS system for hospitality allow for upselling and encourage promotional items?

4. Reporting – how much money are you really making?

Reporting is critical to ensuring your business’ efficiency – and picking a solution that has extremely comprehensive reporting is absolutely vital. The more reports available to you, the more variables you can track and ultimately control in order to improve your earnings.

Ask yourself:

• Do I have multiple stores, or areas within a store, that I want to separate information by?
• Do I want to know about employee-related data, such as cash float details and labor vs. sales?
• Do I need reports on things like inventory management, item sales, forms of media accepted,
  audit logs, loss prevention, and sales breakdowns by time of day?
• Am I printing customer invoices?

5. Reliability and Stability – how often does it crash?

You need a system that you can rely on. You don’t have the time for your POS to pause to think during your busiest periods. If your POS terminal fails, you will lose sales – this is a scary reality. Make sure that the system you invest in boasts exceptional “up-time” and can function regardless of Internet connection, for those unexpected circumstances where the network connection may be lost. For your business, the busier, the better – so select a POS that thrives during your busiest hours and can handle a massive amount of data without slowing down.

Ask yourself:

• What is the uptime of the POS solution?
• Can it function without internet or network connection?
• What happens if hardware fails, when will a new one be on location?

Volanté Systems covers your POS system for hospitality needs

Here at Volanté Systems, we live and breathe POS system refinement, development, and providing the highest level of service to our esteemed clients. Our POS system for hospitality technology is proven in the field, working day after day at applications of all sizes.

For assistance analyzing your point-of-sale needs, specifically in the hospitality industry, feel free to contact us. One of our team members will be happy to hear from you and help you identify the solution for you.